Papers, Please: The Chinese Cannery Crew Inspected at the Depot
Sixteen Chinese laborers bound for a Blaine cannery had to prove their right to be in the country at Seattle’s Northern Pacific depot. One certificate was waterlogged; the photograph saved him.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Sixteen Chinese men were searched at the Northern Pacific depot yesterday morning for their certificates of residence, and all passed inspection. One was in bad shape, having been water-soaked, but the photograph was recognizable and the owner was passed. The men were from Portland and were on their way to Drayton Harbor, near Blaine, to work in a cannery.
“One was in bad shape, having been water-soaked, but the photograph was recognizable and the owner was passed.”
Chinese exclusion was enforced not only at ports but in the ordinary movement of workers to canneries and mills; carrying and producing papers was a condition of travel. The scene anticipates today’s debates over documentation and the vulnerable status of immigrant labor in Washington’s food economy.
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